■AUTOMOBILES
Fiat balks at Opel deal
Fiat said it would not attend talks with the German government yesterday on its bid for Opel, saying that Berlin’s demands on the deal were “unreasonable.” The Italian carmaker said yesterday in a statement, however, that it remains interested in General Motors Corp’s European unit. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne said a requirement that Fiat provide Opel with emergency funds while the government decides the timing and conditions of bridge financing would expose the Turin-based company to “unnecessary and unwarranted risks.” Marchionne said Fiat couldn’t provide such funding because it had not yet had full access to Opel’s financial records and could not determine its exact condition.
■AUTOMOBILES
Saab timeline extended
A Swedish court yesterday approved a three-month extension for Saab Automobile’s reconstruction process, during which a sale of the carmaker is expected. The Vanersborg district court’s ruling means that the General Motors Corp-owned unit can continue its process until Aug. 20, after which a new extension needs to be sought. Trollhattan-based Saab went into creditor protection on Feb. 20 in an effort by General Motors to spin off or sell the unit. Saab officials said earlier this month that they expect to complete the sale by the end of next month.
■INTERNET
Time Warner, AOL to part
Time Warner announced plans on Thursday to spin off its troubled AOL Internet unit by the end of the year, bringing to a close one of the most disastrous corporate mergers in history. The US media and entertainment giant said its board had approved a separation from AOL, formerly known as America Online, to make it an independent, publicly traded company. “We believe that a separation will be the best outcome for both Time Warner and AOL,” Time Warner chairman and chief executive Jeff Bewkes said. “We believe AOL will then have a better opportunity to achieve its full potential as a leading independent Internet company,” he said in a statement.
■GERMANY
Retail sales rise 0.5%
Retail sales rose by an unexpected 0.5 percent last month from March, official statistics showed yesterday, suggesting that consumption could help ease the country’s historic recession. Analysts had expected retail sales, adjusted for calendar and seasonal effects, to slip by 0.1 percent on the month. If the development continues in coming months, it could attenuate a contraction of Europe’s biggest economy, which is in the midst of its worst recession since World War II. On an annual basis however, retail sales fell by 0.8 percent, according to data compiled by the national statistics office from seven German states that account for roughly 76 percent of all sales.
■RETAIL
Wal-Mart goes to India
The world’s No. 1 retailer Wal-Mart is set to open its first sales venture in India today as part of an ambitious plan to establish a foothold in the country’s vast consumer market. The US discount chain has teamed up with Bharti Enterprises, parent of India’s biggest mobile firm Bharti Airtel, in a wholesale joint venture to be called Best Price Modern Wholesale. “India is first of all a country with close to 1.2 billion people and a strongly growing economy which is driven by personal consumption,” chief executive of Wal-Mart India Raj Jain said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique